Quote

Every individual man has a bias which he must obey, and...it is only as he feels and obeys this that he rightly develops and attains his legitimate power in the world. It is his magnetic needle, which points always in one direction to his proper path.... He is never happy nor strong until he finds it, keeps it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Age: 78 †
Born: 1803
Born: May 25
Died: 1882
Died: April 27
Biographer
Diarist
Essayist
Philosopher
Poet
Writer
Boston
Massachusetts
R. W. Emerson
Waldo Emerson
Feels
Keeps
Needles
Every
Direction
Rightly
Always
Path
Bias
Never
Happy
Legitimate
Attains
Men
Individual
Obey
Obeys
World
Strong
Finds
Needle
Power
Points
Magnetic
Must
Proper
Develops

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image
Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not know our place again.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Speak your latent conviction. . . Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
A good deal of our politics is physiological.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The virtue in most request is conformity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The laws of each are convertible into the laws of any other.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
We never touch but at points.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
For he that feeds men serveth few He serves all who dares be true.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Wherever the truth is injured, defend it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
There is a principle which is the basis of things, which all speech aims to say, and all action to evolve, a simple, quiet, undescribed, undescribable presence, dwelling very peacefully in us, our rightful lord: we are not to do, but to let do not to work, but to be worked upon.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The way to learn German, is, to read the same dozen pages over and over a hundred times, till you know every word and particle in them, and can pronounce and repeat them by heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, --/ Never read a book that is not a year old./ Never read any but the famed books./ Never read any but what you like.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
When there is sympathy, there needs but one wise man in a company and all are wise,--so, a blockhead makes a blockhead of his companion. Wonderful power to benumb possesses this brother.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
How much better when the whole land is a garden, and the people have grown up in the bowers of a paradise.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
All natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Where is he who seeing a thousand men useless and unhappy, and making the whole region forlorn by their inaction, and conscious himself of possessing the faculty they want, does not hear his call to go and be their king?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The longer we live the more we must endure the elementary existence of men and women and every brave heart must treat society asa child, and never allow it to dictate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson